I remember shocking some friends at a polite dinner party who asked me what I thought of the movie (BTW: They thought it was very 'cutting edge') when I replied................
That I "feel that a movie made by a homosexual British writer/director whose point was to lampoon America's middle heterosexual class had very little to offer me as far as valid criticism and insight into the current state of U.S. affairs".
Needless to say, a few jaws dropped and the conversation was changed very quickly.
Sir, with all due respect, I believe either you saw a different "American Beauty" than most people, or that idea was put in your head before you saw the movie. Let me explain my POV.
The marine dad was obviously a "repressive queer". He knew his "homosexual feelings" were wrong, and had spent his entire life being the most "manly man" he could be to hide and supress his feelings. He was ashamed and had been tormented all his life by the feelings(hence his attitude twoards his son when he thought he might be queer). Then finally, when he expressed his feelings to someone(Spacey), who he had misunderstood, he was so ashamed he killed him.
Secondly, everyone in the film was outwardly accepting of the two queer neighbor guys - except the marine dad who we later find out about. So to say the film was some sort of "lampoon" on the "heterosexual middle class" is quite funny to me. Its almost as if you watched the film hoping to see come away with that impression. If there had been more queers in the film, who were protrayed as "normal", then youy may have a valid point. But the two queers were really incidental characters - only there to convey the marine dad's feelings to teh audience.